Santa Anita: Mizdirection, Schiaparelli will take separate paths

ARCADIA, Calif. - The one-two finish by Mizdirection and Schiaparelli in Saturday’s $100,000 Las Cienegas Stakes at Santa Anita gives trainer Mike Puype a deep team of female turf sprinters for the spring.

Sunday, Puype said he plans to send the runners in different directions, with Mizdirection bound for the $500,000 Just a Game Stakes over a mile on turf at Belmont Park on June 8, and Schiaparelli a candidate for the $70,000 Great Lady M Stakes over six furlongs on turf at Betfair Hollywood Park on May 26.

In the Las Cienegas, Mizdirection ($2.80) won her fourth consecutive race, stalking Schiaparelli to the final sixteenth before winning by a half-length. Mizdirection’s winning streak began in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint against males at Santa Anita last November and includes two Grade 2 wins earlier this year.

Puype planned for a start in the Las Cienegas as a prep for the Grade 1 Just a Game, which is run around one turn.

“How can you not like her going a one-turn mile?” Puype said.

Mizdirection, owned by a partnership that includes Bill Strauss and television sports commentator Jim Rome, was ridden by David Flores, a one-race replacement for Mike Smith, who rode at Oaklawn Park on Saturday. Smith will retain the mount on Mizdirection for her next start, Puype said.

Schiaparelli was beaten a half-length in her graded stakes debut despite leaping in the air for a stride in the final sixteenth. A 5-year-old mare owned by Ran Jan Racing, Schiaparelli appeared to react to a set of buckets placed near the outside rail of the training track, adjacent the inside rail of the turf course.

“She saw the buckets,” Puype said. “Whether it cost her the race, I don’t know. The other mare was coming.”

The Great Lady M and the $150,000 Royal Heroine Mile on turf on July 6 are the goals for Schiaparelli at the Hollywood Park spring-summer meeting.

“It’s important that we win a stakes win her,” Puype said.